Page:A History of Hindu Chemistry Vol 1.djvu/83

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upon popular beliefs and because indispensable sciences like medicine and astrology are Atharvanic by distiction, the fourth Veda has always retained a considerable following.^[1] If we turn to Europe in the middle ages, we find the professors of the "black art" sharing a fate similar to the priests of the Atharvanic rites,——now openly received into the bosom of the holy church——now anathematised and flung into prison.^[2]

In the Sanskrit Literature whenever there is any reference to sorcery or magic, it is generally laid to the account of the A. V. But in the course of time the worship of Siva came into vogue, which incorporated much that was non-Aryan in character, and which seems to have got blended with A. V.

1. Bloomfield:— Intro. to A. V. xlvi.
2. This is exemplified in Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon. The former rose to be a Bishop but "minder glücklich oder unvorsichtiger als Albertus Magnus, entging Roger Baco der Verfolgung als Zauberer nicht. Er wurde in Oxford von seinen eigenen Klosterbrüdern in das Gefängniss geworfen."—"Gesch. d. Chem." I. 63.